Vermillion
by DearJanuary
Summary: Jake wants to know, why is it that Ryder always wants what's his?


**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or any of it's property and characters.**

It wasn't what he said. It was how he said it.

_I just didn't think you were that kind of girl._

Jake Puckerman, of all people, was commenting on the state of her romantic affairs. He with the manipulative pressure tactics to try and weasel his girlfriend out of her conservative Laura Ashley blouses, he with the wandering eyes and one track mind, he with the perfected eye roll every time Marley would call him back after they had already said 'goodnight' over the phone. Elle trusted that her best friend was concerned, that his peanut gallery comments came solely out of a place of good, but they just didn't sit right with her. If she and Jake weren't as tightly knit to the point where they were practically siblings to one another, she would have unleashed a wrath that would make Voldemort appear tame on him. Instead, she kept her thumb nail between her front teeth and kept thinking pensively about her new situation, her chin resting on the couch's back as her dilated eyes drifted without direction around the room.

Out of her peripherals, she could see Jake in her kitchen, leaning against the open fridge door and peering at its contents. He had always been welcomed in their home, ever since they met in a toddler dance class, but it really grossed Elle out how he would help himself to the carton of orange juice or chocolate milk, take a large swig, exhale, and then return the drink to its vacancy in the refrigerator.

"Why is it so easy for you to pass judgement on me?" Finally, Elle thought to ask, her voice chiming out sweetly over the sound of the car insurance commercial playing on the television. She had taken her nail from her teeth only to start flicking it above her knee.

"Huh?" Jake turned over his shoulder to shoot her a perplexed look, one eyebrow folded over his inky brown eyes, while reaching into the fridge for the carton of juice. "I'm not passing judgement." Defensively, he told her as the fridge slammed shut behind him. "I'm just saying I didn't think you were the type of girl that just gave her number out to a guy just because he asks."

"You know that I'm not." If he was thinking, Jake would have remembered the many times he bare witnessed to her shooting down advances. The guy who worked concessions at the movie theatre in the mall was still nursing his broken heart after she publically declined to even tell him her first name. "Did it not dawn on you that, maybe, I gave Ryder my number because I'm attracted to him?"

"Ugh." Jake scrunched up his face at sound of her words. "It's a good thing I hadn't taken a sip yet or else there would be juice all over the floor." He imagined he would have had to have done a major spit take. "He's not your type." Jake decided, walking around the wooden kitchen table towards the cupboard, surprisingly being civilized and fetching a glass for his drink. "Do you want some?" Even when disagreeing, the two of them always considered one another.

"I have a type?" She asked, both eyebrows rising up like they were attached to backstage ropes. "No, thank you." Elle declined the juice, grabbing the remote off of the cushion and muting the television. "I don't think I have a type, Jake. I've never even had a boyfriend." She argued, scratching at the perfectly round sock bun that sat atop her head. "Ryder's your friend, by the way. _You _introduced us." She reminded.

It was while standing at Jake's locker that the two brunettes had met. Elle's schedule was usually so busy, the overachiever squeezing as many classes as she could as well as taking on tutoring at lunch, but for whatever last Thursday, she had enough time between Biology and French to bounce over to his locker and ask if he wanted to go see The Killers when they came to Columbus, even offering to drive. As if on cue, Ryder had been walking by and wanted to talk to Jake about their new assignment for Glee club and started gabbing away with Elle about how much he loved The Killers first album.

Ryder was Jake's friend; the gangly footballer had grown over time on him. It didn't hurt that he had saved his bare ass with Marley in the beginning and backed off when she finally made her decision to choose him over Ryder, but it still didn't sit well with him that now he and Elle were bonding. Sure, they weren't anything. They had just exchanged numbers and were texting, but they might as well have been inventing new sex positions right in front of him. When Jake thought about his best friend and Ryder hanging out together, even just holding hands, it actually made his blood boil. He could feel the veins in his neck bulging.

"Ryder is my friend." Pouring the orange juice to the very top of the glass, Jake slowly nodded and agreed before bending over to slurp at the liquid until it was low enough to pick up. "You're my friend, too. I'm just looking out for you both." He lied. He was just trying to make himself comfortable.

As if out of reflex, Elle rolled her eyes around and turned around on the couch to face the TV screen, turning the sound back on.

"You hold me to a different standard than everyone else, Jake, and it's not fair." She whined with her back to him, his footsteps coming closer and closer until he was sitting on the other side of the same couch. "You would never be telling your friend Kitty or…what's his name…Blaine or any of them what you thought of their relationships."

"You're special, Elle. You're like my kid sister."

"I'm older than you by two months." Sighing, she reminded him.

"Look, you can be his friend –" He began only to be cut off instantly by the little dancer.

"Thanks for the permission."

"Just, please, don't go on a date with him." Jake's eyes melted like chocolate chips on a frying pan as he stared over her. He tried to widen them to the size of teacup saucers while his head hung over the orange juice glass, lips opened over the rim. "Please." He used a baby dialect that he would never let any of his other friends hear him use.

Elle only laughed, rolling her eyes again.

"Aren't you going out with Marley? Why are you being annoying on my couch?" Changing the subject, Elle turned down the volume as the soap opera she was watching came back on.

"I'm just balancing both the ladies in my life." He joked. "Yeah, I'm meeting up with her. We're going to Breadstix. What are you doing tonight?"

"It's Thursday." She said like he should have just known, but he blinked mindlessly at her and waited for a better answer. "Salsa."

"Teach or practice?"

"It's Thursday!" She threw open her palms on her knees.

Jake just laughed, "I don't know what that means!" He mimicked her hand gesture and tried to match her stunned facial expression to the best of his abilities.

"Teach." She had been taking Latin dance since she was all of three feet tall, her mother having once been a trophy winning Latin dancer herself before becoming pregnant with Elle's older sister. Jake always said he would go to one of her classes now that she was teaching, but he had yet to actually show up to the studio for any other reason than to just blow off some steam creatively or harass Elle lovingly at the front desk. Now that he was with Marley, he wasn't interested in watching the dancers move their hips perfectly around or even flirt with the usual receptionist at the studio, Kelsey, with the fake breasts and raspy voice.

"Ah. Marley wants to do one of your classes." He mentioned, finishing his drink with a gasp and jumping right off the couch to put it in the sink. He really did need to get going.

"There's always room." She mumbled, wondering why Jake had no problem adding in his two cents about her and Ryder, but she never felt it was her place to say a word about Jake and Marley. It was a weird union to her, but Jake really did seem happy with her and she was a positive influence for him, so Elle kept quiet. If Jake was smiling, so was she.

"I'm going to get going." He checked his pocket for his wallet and then walked back to the couch, holding out his open palm for a high five from his best friend.

"So, you just came by to grill me about Ryder?" Unimpressed, but slightly amused, Elle looked up at him and then gave him what he was waiting for with a loud slap.

"Pretty much." Jake winked. "I'm leaving my backpack here. Thanks!" He hollered, heading to put his shoes on and leave. "Hi, Miss Santos." He held open the door for Elle's mother while wrestling his feet into his sneakers without untying him.

"Jake, hey." She kissed the top of his head as if he was her own. Since he was a little boy, she was treating him like the son she never had. Perhaps, that was why it was more likely to find Jake at Elle's house instead of his own after school. "Are you staying? I'm alone for supper, both girls are out." She pouted dramatically, kicking off her heels and hanging up her purse on one of the coat hangers. "I was going to make something spicy."

"You always make something spicy, Mom." Elle pointed out, rising off the couch to meet her mother in the kitchen for a hug. They had always been close.

"I wish I could, Miss Santos."

"He's got a big date." Elle teased, her arms tightly wrapped around her mother's waist. The news of Jake's date only made Miss Santos squeal in delight though. She had heard all about Marley from both Elle and Jake, she thought the girl sounded lovely and she wished that would Jake would bring her by some time.

"Elle gave her number out to some guy she just met!" Jake shouted before making a mad dash out the door. He caught a nanosecond of a death stare from his best friend though and it was enough to make him grin like a cat that just gobbled down a canary in one bite. He knew that would keep the two women busy talking while he was out.

With the lights above them dim and the music above low, Thursday night at Breadstix was more romantic than usual, but Marley wasn't about to complain. She might not have liked going out to restaurants where the pressure of eating was mandatory, but it was very enjoyable to have Jake all to her self for a night. All throughout the day, they were occupied with classes or she was busy practicing songs with Unique and Tina while he was being chatted up by every ponytailed Cheerio or girl in skin tight jeans. Even when they were watching movies at her place, her mom was somewhere around, making sure nothing that wasn't G-rated was going on.

"You've barely taken a bite." Casually, Jake noted and nodded with his chin at her bowl. She had pushed around the lettuce leaves and croutons, hiding the chicken in small pieces underneath, but the actual digesting of Caesar salad had been minimal.

"I've eaten plenty." Marley assured him. "We don't all eat at the speed of light." Giggling, she pointed out. Jake had devoured his burger and fries, leaving only a mark of ketchup as evidence that food had once been on the white ceramic dish in front of him. "Do you want to come over and watch a movie after?"

"I would." He reached across to hold her hand under his. "But I have to finish my essay for English and I left my bag at Elle's."

"As usual." Without missing a beat, Marley noted and took away her hand.

"Marley, come on, you know she's been my friend since I wore light-up sneakers." He reached for her hand again, but she had it safely on her lap now, underneath the table top. This was always an issue with the girls he took out, the fact that his best friend was as female as they were.

"I know, but you go over to her house practically every day after school." It might have been a slight exaggeration, but he was over there more often than not. He even slept on their couch some school nights and, unbeknownst to Marley, sometimes clothed in Elle's bed. "I know you say she is like your sister, but it's just…I don't know, I can't compete with Elle. You guys have stories and inside jokes and she has, like, this sexy Latina thing going for her."

"Marley, if I wanted to be with Elle, I'd be with Elle, but it grosses me out to even say that." He laughed. Jake wasn't blind, he thought his friend was pretty, but Marley had his full attention and affection now. Elle had always just been the little girl waddling next to him at the playground. "And she's only a quarter Latina, if that makes you feel any better." Jake threw in for good measure.

"I know, you're right. I'm cool with it." Marley thought it she said it enough that she would actually become cool with Jake having a pretty female friend as a best mate. "She invited me to go to the Killers this weekend with you and Ryder, so obviously she is being nice and trying."

"Exactly." Jake nodded, picking up his fork to help himself to some of Marley's meal since she wasn't going to finish it. "Wait, what?" He assumed he misheard her. "When did you two talk?"

"She texted me, like, right before we met up…" Marley reached into her hemp bag beside her, rummaging around for her cellphone inside. "Yeah, here." She pulled it out and found the text right away. "Hey Marley, it's Elle, Jake's friend. Jake and I are driving to Columbus to see the Killer's on Saturday. Want to come? Ryder just said he was down, too." Marley read word for word.

Covered in dressing, a full green lettuce leaf fell from the fork that was on its way to Jake's mouth. He knew exactly what Elle was doing. She was trying to make a point that he didn't have control of her life. She did the same thing when he said she wouldn't be able to keep up in jazz, she enrolled in the same class he was in, the advanced one, and tried her best to prove him wrong. He loved his best friend, but she was hard headed as he was.

"It's cool if I come, right?" Hesitantly, Marley asked as she could see Jake was lost in thought ever since she read the text. Something was on his mind now that hadn't been before and she felt completely out of the loop. "It could be fun. The four of us."

"Yeah, the four of us." Frustrated just by the thought of it, Jake repeated. "It's fine, yeah." He would have to have a talk with Ryder, lay down some rules.

**Author's Note: I've wanted to write a Glee story for little bit, so I just sat down and started writing this without much of a plan, but I have some ideas now. Please review, any suggestions and constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you.**


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